New Delhi: After international brands like Balenciaga, Gap and JPMorgan Chase cut ties with Kanye West over his repeated antisemitic remarks, sportswear brand Adidas has also decided to severe ties with West. Recently, Kanye was suspended from Instagram and Twitter, said a Guardian report.
The German brand said that Kanye's recent actions and comments including changing his name to Ye has been "unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness”, as quoted by The Guardian.
Adidas is likely to suffer a loss of €250m (£217m) after stopping production of items under West's Yeezy brand and by putting an end to all of the musician's payments.
Adidas has also profited a lot from Kanye's partnership. In 2020, according to Bloomberg, the collective collaboration brought in nearly $1.7 bn in revenue for the brand, and was due to expire in 2026.
Earlier Kanye was also associated with Nike for years but broke away in 2013 and lent his name to Adidas instead. They launched their first show Yeezy in 2015 which helped Kanye monetarily become one of the most financially stable celebs in America. However, now Adidas has put an end to their partnership with immediate effect including from their website.
This major loss of revenue is a step that sets Adidas apart from many brands which do not take actions against its collaborators.
According to the latest data from Luminate, albums by Kanye West (who now goes by Ye) are down 23 per cent (through October 20, as compared to the previous week) and airplay (spins on radio) has dropped off to the tune of 13 per cent in the U.S., reports 'Variety'.
On some stations, like Los Angeles' KIIS-FM, the rapper's rotation in the last week went down to zero. In every monitored category, including physical and digital sales, programmed and on-demand streaming, West has seen some losses domestically.
According to 'Variety', worldwide, West's sales have declined by 17.5 per cent, per Luminate, while streams dipped 2 per cent, through October 20.
So far in 2022, West's total on-demand streams in the U.S. hover around 3.8 billion; in album sales, he's moved just over 363,000 year-to-date with older titles like 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy', 'College Dropout' and 'Late Registration' seeing the most activity.
'Variety' further states that the rapper's controversial remarks about Jewish people, which led to his Twitter and Instagram accounts being restricted, have gotten louder between October 6, when he appeared on 'Tucker Carlson', and October 19, when an interview with Piers Morgan was released in its entirety. But so have calls to boycott the artist and his businesses.
Recently, anti-semitic demonstrators gathered on a 405 Freeway overpass in Los Angeles and hung banners praising West. Fliers were also distributed around Brentwood identifying entertainment executives as "Jewish".
( With inputs from IANS)